March 6, 2015
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Dublin, Ireland-based Amarin Corporation plc announced today that it had signed a definitive securities subscription agreement with several institutional investors. The group is made up of both existing and new investors.
The agreement calls for the private placement of up to $52,822,618.50 of restricted American Depositary Shares. Each share represents one share of Amarin’s Series A Convertible Preference Shares, which currently have a value of £0.50 per share.
The company’s stock had a huge jump in February, climbing 48 percent after receiving an upgrade from Wall Street company SunTrust Bank and the announcement of a licensing agreement with China for its drug Vascepa. SunTrust upgraded Amarin from “neutral” to “buy” and set a $6 price target on the stock, which suggested a 500 percent upside.
On Feb. 26, 2015, Amarin announced an agreement with Eddingpharm to develop and commercialize Vascepa (icosapent ethyl) for Mainland China, the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions and Taiwan. Vascepa is a treatment for high triglyceride levels and is approved for that use in the United States.
“Vascepa has the potential to occupy a leading position in the substantial worldwide market for prescription omega-3 products,” said John Thero, president and chief executive officer of Amarin in a statement. “Our agreement with Eddingpharm reflects the culmination of a competitive process and represents a significant step toward commercializing Vascepa in a major market outside the United States. We are very pleased to be collaborating with Eddingpharm. We believe that their team is well suited to successfully introduce Vascepa in China.”
Eddingpharm is headquartered in Hong Kong with U.S. headquarters in Westlake Village, Calif. It focuses on developing and promoting products in clinical nutrition, oncology, antibiotics and the respiratory system. It works to expand its portfolio with product in-licensing, joint venture, strategic alliance, exclusive distribution deals and collaboration with other companies in the U.S. and Europe.
“There is a large unmet need for a high-quality, well-studied and differentiated prescription grade omega-3 product in the Chinese market,” said Xin Ni, founder, chair and chief executive officer of Eddingpharm in a statement. “We are delighted that Amarin has entrusted Eddingpharm to develop and commercialize Vascepa in Greater China. Vascepa has significant commercial potential in the rapidly growing Chinese market. Together with Amarin, we are committed to bringing this medicine to millions of patients in the region.”
Amarin intends to use the proceeds from the most recent private placement in support of the Vascepa commercialization and to push its REDUCE-IT cardiovascular outcomes clinical trial.
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Last week controversy erupted over the compensation package for Sanofi’s new CEO, Olivier Brandicourt, with several French government officials decrying the amount, calling it “incomprehensible.” Brandicourt could walk off with as much as $4.5 million in a “golden handshake” payment in addition to making $4.76 million a year. That base figure is comprised by a fixed annual salary of $1.36 million a year, which is supplemented by a performance-related bonus of between 150 to 250 percent, as well as stock options and performance shares.
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